Sleep may suffer among teens from single-parent homes

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenagers living in
single-parent households may have more difficulty getting a good
night's sleep than their peers growing up with both parents, a
new study suggests.

"We know that sleep problems in general are very prevalent
among teenagers," said Wendy Troxel, a behavioral and social
scientist at the RAND Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
who led the research.

"These findings show that teenagers from single-parent homes
may be particularly vulnerable," she told Reuters Health.

Troxel cautions, however, that the study results merely
indicate some connection between single-parent family structures
and increased sleep problems among adolescents, not
cause-and-effect.

"Do not over-interpret these findings," said Troxel, who is
also an adjunct assistant professor at the University of
Pittsburgh. "All we're doing is showing associations. The
implication is not: tell parents to get married," she wrote in
an email.

The idea that parents' marital status may affect youngsters'
health is well established, but most research on the topic has
focused on mental and physical effects observed during waking
hours.

What little research has been done on sleep-associated
effects focuses on younger children, not adolescents, Troxel and
her colleagues point out in the journal Sleep Medicine.

To investigate teenagers' sleeping patterns, the researchers
recruited 242 students, aged 14-19 years, from a Pennsylvania
high school. The teenagers answered questionnaires about their
sleep habits and also wore a special sleep-monitoring watch that
collected information about their sleep patterns over a period
of seven days and nights.

The researchers also asked questions of the students and
their parent or guardian about symptoms of depression in the
teens, and levels of conflict among family members or financial
strain at home.

Most of the students, 147 teenagers, were from single-parent
families, while the remaining 95 students were from two-parent
families.

Teenagers from single-parent homes had lower sleep
efficiency - a measure of sleep duration and fragmentation -
both during the week and on weekends than did their peers from
two-parent homes.

The kids from single-parent homes also slept fewer hours
during the weekend than their peers. That remained true even
when the researchers took into consideration the teenagers' age,
gender, race, parents' education and other factors that might
influence the results.

Race did seem to play a role in the degree to which family
structure affected the teenagers' sleep. For example, black
teenagers in single-parent homes experienced lower sleep
efficiency on weekends than black teens in two-parent families
and whites from single- or two-parent families.

Family structure did not appear to affect bedtimes among
black youth. But white teenagers from single-parent homes had
greater inconsistencies in their bedtimes and more sleep-wake
problems, such as erratic sleeping patterns, than white teens
from two-parent homes.

"The findings are a message to parents that consistent
bedtimes are key," Troxel said. She added that it's important
for parents "to be actively involved in managing (their
children's') nighttime routine," including restricting media at
bedtime.

Dr. Judith Owens, director of sleep medicine at Children's
National Medical Center in Washington, DC, told Reuters Health
that parents should make their child's sleeping habits a high
priority.

"Paying attention to the amount of sleep and the sleeping
habits that their adolescents get is just as important as other
health messages." she said. For example, difficulty waking
adolescents in the morning may be a warning sign that the
teenager is not getting enough sleep.

"If you can sleep longer on the weekends, that means you
need more sleep Monday through Friday," she said. Other warning
signs of inadequate sleep include dozing off in the classroom
and dozing during homework time.

Parents should take these signs seriously, considering the
known short and long-term effects of inadequate sleep, she said,
such as the increased risk of diabetes, obesity and
cardiovascular problems.

"Sleep is important - just as important as good nutrition
and healthy amounts of exercise," Owens said.